


Without the Stars

by AirFireWaterEarth



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: A little up in the air, AU within an AU o.O, Alternate Universe - Magic, Because he never met Tsukki, Getting Together, Kenma and Kuroo are fairygodparents, Kenma's so done, Kinda, Kuroo is overprotective of Yams, M/M, Maybe - Freeform, Tsukki doesn't have friends now ;.;, Tsukki has no idea what's going on, Yamaguchi plays tennis instead of volleyball, a lot of errors, and kuroken, debating adding kagehina, definitely tsukkiyama tho, i'm spoiling everything
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-06 02:05:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10323047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AirFireWaterEarth/pseuds/AirFireWaterEarth
Summary: In the presence of the moon, no one sees the stars…But when the moon’s drop kicked out of the sky by an unhappy fairy godmother...er… father, he’s going to be doing a lot of star watching.In which Kuroo is trying to be a good fairy godfather for Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi forgets Tsukishima, and Kenma has to help him clean up this mess.





	1. Chapter One: The Alternate Reality

In the presence of the moon, no one sees the stars… Well, the moon was about to get drop kicked out of the sky and do quite a bit of star watching.

:::::

The day had passed as it normally would: the classes were passed at the same monotonous pace, lunch was filled with Yamaguchi jabbering and occasion snicker at something clever Kei said, and volleyball practice was just an irking as it always was.

It wasn’t until Kei nodded a goodbye to Yamaguchi that first push towards the god awful mess happened.

The overly warm weather for spring was already bothering Kei enough as it was. However, a teen with unruly black hair and a sleazy smirk increased his irritation. He did so by stepping into Kei’s line of vision. Kei curtly pushed down his headphone gave the most monotone “Can I help you?” he could muster.

The teen pushed his fingers into his pockets and tilted his head, the smirk growing wider.

“Why, yes, good sir! Just a moment of your time, please.” he purred. Kei sighed through his nose but waited. “Well, aren’t you so kind! I just wanted to ask… how close are you with that friend you just parted with?”

Kei blinked. Was the teen asking about… Yamaguchi? He must have been watching them… How long had he been watching them? Kei made an attempt to seem even taller than he already was.

“We’ve.... known each other a while.” he vaguely replied.

The teen seemed unhappy with this answer. 

“Well,” the raven-haired adolescent said slowly, “What if you hadn’t? Known each other, that is. Would this… affect you?”

Kei attempted to dissect the question. 

“Are you asking if Yamaguchi had any impact on my life?” 

“Yes.”

Kei found himself at a loss to do in the situation. This stranger was digging too far into his personal life. Whilst the line of questioning was benign, it was odd and invasive. This lack of answers, though, gave the stranger a premature answer.

“Is that a no, then?”

Kei shook himself to reality and pulled out his charmer smile and fake mirth to ease the tension only he seemed to feel.

“My apologies,” he chuckled, “But I really would like to get home.”

The stranger tilted his head, “Oh, too much for you then.”

Kei’s smile wavered.

“Well, if it’s too hard for you to say yes, it must be a no?”

Unable to understand--- or withstand--- the teen, Kei simply walked off, pulling up his headphones and ignoring the protests of the other teen. Maybe if Kei stayed a little longer, been as observant as he usually was, or never stopped to talk at all, his mess could have been avoided.

But he hadn’t.

:::::

Unlike the day before, things did not go as they normally did.

To begin with, Kei’s alarm went off about ten minutes later than it usually did. It had never done that. It was always strictly set to the same time. There was no reason for it to have gone off later. Throughout the rushed morning, he noticed other little things, like the lack of his fourth dinosaur on the shelf---the one Yamaguchi had given him---or the second toothbrush in his toothbrush holder that Yamaguchi had used when they were younger and sleepovers were normal for boys that Kei continuously forgot to throw out.

He would have brushed all these things off. And, at the time, Kei did. But they came to mind afterward because these little things became quite large.

::::

Kei decided that everyone’s alarms had gone off late because Yamaguchi hadn’t been on time to their usual meeting point either. 

“Tch.” Kei murmured as he pulled out his phone to text Yamaguchi. Kei frowned when he realized his phone had erased the contact. Kei had never bothered to memorize Yamaguchi’s number so that would have to be fixed later. Kei teased the idea of just skipping morning practice but disliked the idea of waiting for Yamaguchi all morning, so he walked off.

Finally, the odd morning occurrences would rise to Kei’s attention, because of, well, the oddest part of the morning thus far.

A small voice---equally unenthusiastic--- deadpanned, “You’re so unobservant.”

It was said before Kei could put on his headphones and caused him to exhale his second “Tch” of the day. It was extremely untrue. He was quite observant; nothing like the oblivious idiots that made up Karasuno’s freak duo.

Kei looked around to locate to voice, to find it belonged to a relatively short boy with hair that looked suspiciously like pudding---

And wings.

Tiny, fluttering wings that Kei would have doubted their capability of flight if the boy were not hovering a few inches from the ground.

Kei blinked.

Puddinghead looked up at from with hooded eyes as if slightly surprised that the blond could see him, before coming to an unspoken explanation and relaxing.

“Oh. I forgot you could hear me now.”

It was as if the boy had responded to the fact that Kei had morning practice, not the fact that Kei could “see” him (because he apparently couldn’t before)--- the puddingheaded fairy.

Kei was, for the second time in roughly 24 hours (thus far), at a loss for words.

“How, exactly, am I unobservant?” Oh, there they were.

The puddingheaded fairy shrugged off the lack of reaction towards their appearance.

“You don’t seem to put two and two together easily.” he replied.

Kei wasn’t sure where those numbers were even coming from, let alone add them.

The puddingheaded fairy elaborated, “Your friend--- you haven’t noticed anything off with him.”

Kei sighed, “He’s just late.” Maybe this was a dream. That would make more sense.

“Actually,” the puddingheaded fairy asked, “do you have any evidence you have a friend at all?”

Kei was taken aback by the question, “Of course.”

“Like?”

Kei pushed his lips together. Inconvenient timing, seeing as his phone had erased Yamaguchi’s number. Kei looked through his bag to see find an eraser that Yamaguchi had given him. He’d lost it. Kei let out a frustrated sigh. Why was he trying to prove himself to a likely reaction of too little sleep and possibly an accidental whiff of whatever Hinata was on?

But the puddingheaded fairy still didn’t go away. Instead, he stopped fluttering and walked with the quickly retreating Kei, who decided to simply continue his walk to school. 

“I’m really just trying to help you avoid embarrassment.”

Kei tried his best to seem uninterested, “Really?”

“Yes. Since you’re too oblivious,” the monotonous fairy was beginning to get an edge to his voice, “I’ll just tell you.”

“Mhmm,” Kei hummed as he scrolled for a song.

“Tadashi has no idea who you are.” Kei walked more slowly, sparing a glance at the fairy as the creature continued. “When Kuroo gets a human godchild, he usually goes overboard.”

Kei was confused as to what to say and incredibly lost. Yamaguchi was too obsessed with Kei to forget him, something the two of them knew well. The only reason Yamaguchi would not know ‘who’ Kei was--- well, there wasn’t one. Yamaguchi had Kei mapped out. Unless the puddingheaded fairy was speaking literally and that would take Yamaguchi not even meeting him to---

Oh.

No, that was--- Well, that would---

Kei hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking until the fairy spoke.

“Your conversation with Kuroo last night didn’t help.”

Kei’s brain had officially shut down. Medication was needed. Something! There was no logical way to explain the puddingheaded fairy. There was no logical way of explaining fairy’s ‘godchilden’. And there was no logical way to explain Kei never meeting Tadashi, despite something he clearly remembers. 

The silence must have dragged on enough for the fairy as he broke it.

“You’ll be late for practice.”

No reply.

“Hello?”

“You’re not real,” Kei said simply.

“Well, I am.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“... yes.”

Finally, a completely bewildered Kei just put on his headphones and entirely blocked out the fairy for the rest of the walk to morning practice, something he was only able to catch the last ten minutes of. Also, a practice that Yamaguchi never attended and was watched by the puddingheaded fairy.

:::::::

Yamaguchi was in class after that. Kei hadn’t been so relieved to see him in years. But the ravenette, usually quick to greet, completely ignored him. Kei tried his best not to obviously stare. If Yamaguchi wasn’t talking to him, it wasn’t something that bothered Kei.

Even if it was extremely unusual.

“Stop looking at him like that, you know I’m right,” Kenma murmured. Kei wasn’t actually sure when Kenma had given Kei his name, but it had come up some point after practice, when Kenma was saying that Yamaguchi had joined the tennis team, not volleyball, explaining his absence. Kei had, of course, ignored the fairy.

Kei wasn’t sure when he would choose a side: either take some pills or believe fairy godparents existed and that Yamaguchi’s wanted Kei out of the picture. Neither were appealing. Although, ironically, the latter was becoming more and more plausible.

It took Kei seeing Yamaguchi stumble his way through a playful tennis match at lunch from the window of the classroom for him to finally believe Kenma.

Currently, in the eyes of everyone the world except for Kei (and Kenma), Yamaguchi and Tsukki never happened at all.


	2. The Last Clock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kei tries to figure out how he's supposed to fix this mess. In the background, Kenma tries to figure out how to deal with Kuroo and play with a Nintendo.

Kenma was useless.

Apparently, the reason he was there wasn’t to reverse what Kuroo had done. It was to guide Kei into fixing what Kuroo had done. Because of this, Kei had a hard time believing he was actually there to do anything.

Kenma huffed at this.

“If it weren’t for me, you would have looked like an oblivious fool talking to Tadashi.”

Kei’s ears turned slightly pink at the idea of the that reality. Maybe Kenma was right but, otherwise, he wasn’t much help.

Kenma sighed.

“I can’t do anything, because I have no real power in this situation. Guiding you gives me less power than Kuroo being Tadashi’s full time fairygodfather. I can’t do the crazy things he does. Not that anyone should.”

Kei looked up from the book he pretended to be studying.

“And why would I have any more power?”

Kenma glanced at him. “Because you’re the sole holder of those memories that were removed. You’re literally the one clock Kuroo hasn’t turned back.”

“And I lack the new ones.” Kei adjusted his glasses grumpily. 

Kenma shrugged, “Technically, the “new ones” don’t exist. Yet. Once you get those ones, though, that’s when the change becomes permanent.” 

Kei was greatly disturbed by this, sitting up quickly.

“What? How?”

“If not even you remember your time with Tadashi, all evidence of this alternate reality is erased. While it doesn’t necessarily become the truth, it’s cemented.” Kenma thought of the best way to say it and looked up at the ceiling. “Remember how I said you’re the last clock? Well if the last clock is changed, everything’s the same.”

Kei frowned, “I got that part--- somewhat--- I meant the forgetting part.”

Kenma slouched a little at the miscommunication. Kei supposed there was a difference in importance to the two. 

“Ah, well… It’s natural. You can’t have blips in time. Time is going to want to make sure there are no inconsistencies.”

Kei nodded. He didn’t really want to talk anyone. Kei just wanted to breathe. Well, no. He wanted it to be a dream. There was still a chance it was, but unlikely. He’d been hit with Hinata’s spikes enough to supplement the usual pinch used as the deciding factor. 

Kei looked around his room, slowly ebbing from deeper thoughts. The more he looked for it, the more he saw the signs of Yamaguchi’s absence. Notebooks that Yamaguchi left under Kei’s care for safe keeping were gone. The book Yamaguchi had given him on constellations was missing. As was the night light that projected stars on the ceiling. Kei was sure that its dinosaur counterpart ---at Yamaguchi’s home--- was just as MIA. On his phone, some of the songs Yamaguchi had convinced him to get weren’t in his playlist.

A few more moments of silence occurred before Kei gave two questions that would finally put things into action.

“How long do I have before I forget everything?”

“I’d say a month. Maybe two.”

“And how exactly do I fix this?”

Kenma gave Kei and annoyed look. “About time you asked. You need to create another bond with Tadashi, then do something significant. And, because I can hear a snide comment about that being cryptic, no, I don’t know what it would be. It’s up to fate. Just keep trying things until one of them works. Then you’re back to normal and this all was a strange dreams.”

Kenma then got a disturbed look on his face.

“It doesn’t solve the other problem, though.” he muttered.

Kei narrowed his eyes. “What problem?”

“Kuroo.”

“Oh.”

In the tangle of everything, Kei had forgotten the entire reason this was all happening. The fact that Kuroo, who must have been gifted some strong power in order to protect Yamaguchi, thought that Kei needed to be wiped from the picture. Indelibly. 

“How do I deal with him?” Kei asked, already trying to come up with solutions. 

Kenma shook his head, “You don’t. I do.” It was followed by a groan. Kei ignored it. Whatever relationship the two fairies had before the entire situation wasn’t of Kei’s concern. He figured he’s discover soon enough anyways.

Yamaguchi was never trouble. That was why Kei was friends with him. He could be clingy and overly-reliant, but never any trouble. He was different from most people, witty and sweet, smart and innocent. Kei was the troublesome of the two. Always denying his time to Yamaguchi and making himself as hard to read as possible. So he’s let Yamaguchi be trouble, this once. 

~~~

Yamaguchi spread out his fingers over the ceiling, casting a spider shadow over the flashlight Kei was holding up. It was such an awful attempt that Kei snickered. Yamaguchi cast him a betrayed look at Kei felt the oddest, ugliest sensation he’d ever felt. It was the same feeling you got when your mother looks at you and tells you how being a liar was disappointing to her. He shouldn’t have felt this bad; he hadn’t before. Not with anyone from school. Then again, he didn’t invite other people at school over at night to make shadow puppets.

In a silent apology, Kei sat up, putting the flashlight between his knees to keep it up, and repositioned Yamaguchi’s hands to create a better representation of a spider. The feeling--- guilt it was called--- resided at Yamaguchi’s fascinated looks, casted at the ceiling, his own hands, and Kei. A smile bright enough to rival the flashlight allowed Kei comfort enough to lay back down next to Yamaguchi. Throughout the night, Yamaguchi would play with a few more and Kei would nod at them, even though most looked like odd blobs. 

~~~

Kei’s heart began to sink as parts of that memory faded. Like what kind of flashlight it was, or if that shadow really was a spider. Could it have been a dog? Kenma didn’t even think it was the spell as much as it was Kei being paranoid about natural misremembering.

Whatever the case was, the morning following the conversation on what to do, Kei looked too see if Yamaguchi were in any official tennis matches. He would have been proud that Yamaguchi was in a few, if Kei didn’t find tennis so boring and uneventful. Still, he would go. It wasn’t much of a step, but it would do.

~~~

In the matches the following week, Yamaguchi did fairly well. He won two out of the three people he played against, even if the opponents didn’t have very good winning streaks to start out with. Kenma was missing for most of the game, which Kei found irritating. As hypocritical as it sounded at the moment, tennis was as boring as the spectators were annoying. They’d go on and on about that way one of the players would hit with the racket and their concepts on tennis were so boring they actually angered Kei.

After Yamaguchi’s matches were finally over, Kei could see the other players on the team and their dynamic with him. He could see it slightly whilst the game was in play, but it wasn’t like volleyball. It was a single persons game unless it was a two on two match. Yamaguchi wasn’t in any of those. Kei was able to single out a close friend, out of all of them. He had extremely odd hair, sticking out all over the place and multi colored. He had owl-ish features, such as his eyes, golden and slightly slited. He was overly energetic and loud, but it made Yamaguchi laugh--- for reasons unfathomable to Kei.

Having encountered two fairies at this point, Kei could also pick out the same feeling that he had felt around Kenma and Kuroo that one time, and feel the same thing around this new character. Kei narrowed his eyes. Why? Why would another fairy bother with Yamaguchi? Was he on an extreme favor for Kuroo or have some other ulterior motive?

As it turned out, it was both. When Kei talked about it with Kenma a little while later, Kenma revealed most of the truth that could be picked out without completely talking to Yamaguchi’s new friend.

Bokuto was a close friend of Kuroo’s, but was on a leash by someone named Akaashi. They weren’t fairies, rather, familiars.

This lead into the inevitable truth about Yamaguchi. 

It come out when Kei glanced around to assure he wouldn’t be confused for a psych ward patient before asking Kenma.

“It’s clear this isn’t some wish-upon-a-star sort of fairygodparent business. How does this work then?”

Kenma sighed, as if preparing to tell Kei that Santa Claus didn’t exist.

“We... latch onto humans with a lot of power. Before, humans with a lot of power didn’t need us; they had their own protection, themselves. But as time went on, humans just became vessels that held power, unable to use it. 

Now us magical creatures just use it as a power outlet. In return, we give what we are best at doing. Fairies for granting wishes, familiars for company and protection. We’re usually the best at doing our end. Demons… aren’t as good at it and tend to take what they want to take. Along with other creatures.” 

Kei blinked, then slowly realized what this implied.

“So Yamaguchi… has a lot of… human power?”

Kenma nodded, “As an understatement. Like all humans, he can’t use any of it on his own, but it’s there and… overwhelming. It’s the fairies that took him first, so that others didn’t try to take him.” Another glance at Kei’s ever-calculating face caused him to add, “Forget about that kind of stuff and focus on fixing your issue.”

Kei nodded dully, having already done that before Kenma had even mentioned why the fairies had taken Yamaguchi. 

“Do you have a gameboy?”

The sudden and off topic question jolted Kei out of his thoughts.

“Do I have… what?”

“A gameboy.”

“Yeah, I… no. I… have a Nintendo. Somewhere at home.” Kei sighed.

“Can I use it?”

“I figured that was already part of the question.”

~~~

Kei immediately regretted allowing Kenma to play with the Nintendo. Why? Well, simply put… the Nintendo was in the realm of sight and sound. Kenma wasn’t. Not to anyone beyond Kei. So his parents would ask if Kei had heard something if Kenma had the volume up high enough or look in Kenma’s general location before blinking and shaking their heads. It was the same with the people at school. 

Bokuto wasn’t in Yamaguchi’s (and, subsequently Kei’s) classes likely because of his lack of intelligence (Kenma thought this evaluation was harsh for someone who had seen the familiar once, but didn’t disagree). It meant Yamaguchi would leave at lunches to find him. Although Kei attempted not to follow--- for his own pride--- he eventually did. The thing about Kei was that he’d never had to make friends himself. They either came to him or… well, considering Yamaguchi had been his only friend, that was the only thing they did.

Kei didn’t know if it was fate smiling on him or spiting him when it turned out that Hinata was friends with Bokuto. Overexcitable as he was, Hinata immediately invited Kei to eat with them, likely intrigued by the fact that Kei had left his classroom this once. 

Kei sat down. Yamaguchi titled his head to evaluate him and then smiled. 

“So you guys are on the volleyball team together?”

Hinata nodded and proceeded to explain in incoherent sound effects how Kei’s height enabled him in blocking. 

Yamaguchi laughed at Hinata’s antics and mockingly put his hand under his chin to nod throughout Hinata’s explanation.

“I thought about joining the volleyball team once,” Yamaguchi hummed after Hinata was finished.

This caught Kei’s attention and spoke for the first time, asking, “Why didn’t you?”

A flicker of confusion flew over Yamaguchi’s face, but vanished as he replied, “It was too intense. I work with teams alright, but I’m best when working on my own.”

The hard part about this was that it was true. Even when on the volleyball team, Yamaguchi was a pinch server, the one position that was isolated from the rest of the team.

There was a little but more small talk before Kei realized he was completely wasting the opportunity that had practically fallen into his lap. There was so much he knew about Yamaguchi that he could use right then. Finally, his eyes fell on Yamaguchi’s bracelet, which dangled a few stars and planets.

“You like astrology?” Kei asked, nodding to the bracelet. He pretended that would be the reasons he’d pushed Yamaguchi into a full blown rant of constellations. 

It’d worked and Kei listened, truly fascinated, even though he’d heard it countless times before. The bracelet jingled while Yamaguchi talked about Orion’s belt, and the roots of astrology signs. Kei realized some pleasant differences in Yamaguchi that he hadn’t before. What he thought was a fluke of the tournament turned out to be Yamaguchi’s usual style when it came to keeping his hair in a ponytail. The oddly feminine bracelet was accompanied by an black stud earring in Yamaguchi’s left ear. 

Bokuto cut off Yamaguchi’s rant with a reminder that there was a club meeting for a bit during lunch. Kei got the feeling that Bokuto had figured out there was something different about him. After the two had left Hinata looked to Kei.

“Oi, Stingyshima, I’ve never seen you so nice.”

Kei scoffed. 

Yes, Yamaguchi could be trouble this once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyy. Finally found the inspiration to do this chapter. Longer this time too! More room for errors, though. My apologies for those! Also, hopefully their encounters will become less awkward as a) Kei finally figures out what he actually want to do b) exposition time is over and c) I figure out how to write.
> 
> Thanks for your guys’ support for this fic! It really means alot to me!


	3. So, as it seems, Tsukishima cannot do somethings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Other perspectives appear and Kei continues to be useless in his own predicament.

This wasn’t working. Kei decided this whilst aggressively blocking volleyballs that dared to cross Kei. The team--- particularly the idiot duo--- got the brunt of it. Kei tried so hard to talk to Yamaguchi but, for a reason Kei couldn’t understand, it wasn’t working. Bokuto didn’t even bother with trying to deter Yamaguchi from talking to him. Kei could use his faux charm whenever he wanted, but Kei felt lame using it on Yamaguchi. He never needed to before. And Kei was slowly beginning to realize that this wasn’t anything like before.

Kenma wasn’t around much after the tennis game. Whatever he was doing, Kei didn’t care. But this was when Kei’s true loneliness sunk in. Kenma was an easy filler for Yamaguchi. Not a replacement or even good company in Kei’s opinion. There wasn’t any babble about video games (well, there were video game noises) or mangas or Yamaguchi’s mother’s odd obsession with china dishes or how pretty a sky was or whatever Yamaguchi would babble about. But it was company nonetheless. Now it was gone and the complete sink-in of Yamaguchi’s absence was apparent.

Suga noticed this aggressiveness as abnormal and, being the person he was, took it upon him to ask the matter. Kei was, of course, tight lipped a terse and assured Suga that nothing was the matter. It was a thin assurance, especially when Kei practically cracked his emotional wall watching Yamaguchi’s old volleyball tutor hit a jump floater.

This _sucked_.

That thought occurred on the walk home.

“Tch.” Kei muttered at the childishness of it. He was in middle of the fairy godfather curse causing his best friend to forget they’d ever met and _that_  was his train of thought.

“Always so upset.” a cat-like ravenette chided.

Kei snapped his head up from its gaze at the ground. Kei clicked pause and just glared at Kuroo.

“Why _are_  you so upset, anyway? Nothing really happened, has it?” Kuroo taunted.

Kei sneered and began walking around the fairy.

“See this is your problem, Tsukishima. If you can’t admit, just once, that someone, some-thing- matters at all to you, you don’t deserve.” Kuroo sighed, a smirk still present.

Kei tensed and looked back. “And how are _you_  the one to decide what _I_ deserve?”

Kuroo’s smirk fell and was replaced with an almost disgusted look; nose slightly upturned, lips lightly pinched, and hooded eyelids.

“Since you started bringing down people who care about _you_.”

The sentence was oddly scalding. It wasn't truly witty or hit anywhere close to a 'home'.

Maybe because it was something so deep from someone with a constant smirk or because Kei was hearing this from someone who was literally there to protect Yamaguchi. Whatever the reason, Kei was prepared to brush it off. After all, it shouldn’t matter what this fairy said. The why was lacking and _that_  was likely the real reason for why the sentence cut so deep. But Kei just gave the most mocking smile he could give and walked away with his music.

And only his music.

~~~

Tadashi looked over at the tall blonde looking angrily at his desk. He didn’t remember much about him, only the whispers from other students saying that, as attractive as the blonde was, he was equally cold and unapproachable. Personally, Tadashi found Tsukishima neither. Not good in a public setting, surely, but neither was he.

Tadashi hummed a little, slightly confused and mostly bored with the lesson. His conversation with Tsukishima and Hinata sparked some old interest he had in the sport years ago. Tadashi pondered over watching Hinata and Kageyama during their practise later that week. Tadashi was let in on the fact that their coach’s personal volleyball team was going to play with them on the Tuesdays leading up to their tournament (in less than 3 weeks).

Maybe Bokuto would be willing to go as well.

~~~

Nothing was happening on Tsukishima’s end. Two Mondays had passed since the time that lunch and Kei had encountered Yamaguchi a grand total of thrice, including the one time Kei genuinely asked to see one of Yamaguchi’s colorful notes that Kei missed while wallowing in his anger at the cat-like fairy.

It was lunch that Kei left the classroom to go to his usual lunch spot on the roof of the school. On his way, Hinata ran into him (in the literal sense). He looked up sheepishly and Tsukishima remarked on Hinata’s lack of coordination off court. It was returned with a pout and then an odd look.

“What is that for?” Tsukishima sniped.

This was met with an uncomfortable look and more silence.

Tsukishima waited another second before shaking his head, rejecting the option of a snide comment on Hinata’s fish like expression, and began to continue on his way to the roof.

“Eh, Tsukishima? Why don’t you have friends?” Hinata asked.

Really? Kei gave a sigh so harsh it was almost a growl. That didn’t deserve an answer, really. Kei could exact his revenge later.

“Wait!” Hinata said quickly, “I mean it! I swear, I thought… I can’t... Don’t you have a friend?”

Kei paused and looked over at Hinata. Thoughts flew through his mind, but none included any helpful at the direct moment. Kei just walked off, knowing that, this time, this was another case of _maybe he should say something_.

~~~

Kenma was pissed. End of story. Or he wished it was.

Because Kenma had a job and it was to help Tsukishima Kei in cleaning up the massive mess that only Kuroo Tetsuro could make. And part of this job--- most he could do, really--- was to make sure Kuroo didn’t get in the way. This job was a difficult one.

“You’re insane.” Kenma stated bluntly.

Kuroo looked over at his godchild, playing a tennis match.

“You wound me.” Kuroo’s tone contradicted the statement.

Kenma clicked his tongue in annoyance. Kuroo’s state of mind was always stuck in one place; outrageous. It wasn’t that Kuroo had come out of the blue when practically banishing Kei from Tadashi’s life. Kenma was aware of the obvious lack of care Kei had in general--- it took him a week to even swallow his pride and (god forbid it) follow Tadashi outside the classroom. It didn’t get easier as time went on. Kei and initiating conversations about Tadashi with Tadashi was like training a dog finally giving up enough of its free will to sit.

As much as Kei tried to hide it with indifference and snarky comments towards Kenma, this was a difficult task. Kei didn’t have long until he began forgetting things. At this rate, Kenma wondered if he’d be able to fix this at all. In the meantime: Kuroo.

Kenma really should have seen what was coming. He always did. But Kenma was busy with his own things and perhaps overestimated Kuroo’s sanity for a moment too long. The side complaints on how it went from it was ‘hard to help Tadashi when he didn’t want to be helped’ to ‘his friend’s a prick’ to ‘it’s that tall one’s fault’. And then this.

Kenma huffs and subconsciously flies a little higher.

“Do you even realize what you’ve done?” he bit out harshly and flat.

Kuroo looks at Kenma slyly “I do. I’m making that kid regret ever taking my godchild for granted.”

And suddenly it hits Kenma. Kuroo wasn’t preventing Kei from attempting to getting Tadashi’s memories back, because that was never the intention. It wasn’t even the type of spell that Kenma thought it was.

So Kenma hits Kuroo.

“Asshole.” Kenma mutters. Kuroo smiles and tugs at the smaller fairy’s hair, earning a literal slap on the hand. There's a snicker from one end and a huff from the other (and shorter end, really, as Kuroo would chide)

“It’s not a wiping spell then,” Kenma sighed, “It’s a curse.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um… I’m really tired. Again. A little short as well.
> 
> So that wasn’t really supposed to be a huge cliffhanger. It’s not that big of a deal. In fact, I realized that would go down a real angsty road the way it was going so this’ll actually lighten things up and add a little fluff. After I figure out how to push Tsukishima to do something other than be awkward and overly prideful.


	4. Bokuto's surprisingly smoother than Tsukki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems Kei can't do anything so Bokuto will take things into his own hands. In the worst way possible.

It is Tuesday of the third week of Reality II and Kei had given up all hope.

Reason 1: Hinata was acting as if he were on to something. Kei had no idea what was humanly possible for anyone to be on to something under the terms of Kei’s case, let alone the red-head with the IQ of a potato, but it would take quite a bit of ignoring on Kei’s end to pretend as if he didn’t notice the cautions Hinata was taking around him.

Reason 2: Yamaguchi had been looking over at him. Which would be great, yes, if it weren’t for the fact that Yamaguchi’s glances were casual; like they couldn’t possibly escalate to any close to what they were before. This perturbed Kei greatly. Suddenly, Kei didn’t care for the glances, and slowly began to hate them.

Reason 3: Kei’s ‘light’ conversations with Yamaguchi were unlike anything Kei ever had to do. To his horror, Yamaguchi seemed indifferent to Kei’s occasional quip about one person or another, sometimes even slightly unhappy with them. Perhaps he wouldn’t frown, but Kei could tell Yamaguchi would make an almost exaggerated attempt to change topics.

By this particular Tuesday, Kei didn’t have much hope left. Maybe Yamaguchi and him were better off separated. Kei hated feeling that same, self-hatred feeling that he would see in Yamaguchi’s eyes. Especially now, when those same eyes couldn’t shake some sense into Kei when no one could. Thinking thoughts like those gave temporary surges in inspiration, but left almost as quickly as they came.

But this particular Tuesday was no ordinary Tuesday, else there wouldn’t be a story behind it.

Kei suffered through the day as he had for the last few weeks. Occasionally in the company of Yamaguchi, a little too much Hinata (which was usually a little too much of the King), strange and infuriatingly knowing looks from Bokuto, and an overly quiet more-than-usual-meaning-almost-mute Kenma with a permanent contemplating look on his face.

It wasn’t boring, no, but lonely. Annoyingly, devastatingly lonely.

And then after school practice rolled around and whether things got better or worse was up in the air. Kei let out another sigh after one of his blocks induced a slight bit of pain. Too irritating for things like this but not irritating enough to make a fuss over it. Not to mention, they were in another match against the Neighborhood team and very few excuses flew. It was then a few heads including his own turned toward the casual opening of the gym door. Although it wasn’t loud enough to catch all the teams’ attention, visitors were rare and that in itself was enough to turn heads. Just Kei’s luck (good or bad) Yamaguchi and Bokuto, along with two other unknown people that Kei vaguely remembered from the tennis matched before, entered the gym.

“Pardon us!” They apologized.

Tadashi was quick to explain when the rest who hadn’t noticed them finally payed more attention.

“Hinata invited us to see you all play. I hope we didn't intrude.”

There was a murmur and Suga assured them that, as long as they didn’t help Hinata cheat (with a wink) they would be just fine. Daichi gave a stiff nod in confirmation with this statement.

Kei did worse after that. Not too notably, but notably enough to catch Suga’s and Hinata’s attention. (God, he had too many people on his case. Leave him alone!) Kei had to forcefully resist glancing at Yamaguchi when Shimada did a float serve. It was painful, but it strangely gave Kei a minor sense of comfort. Maybe it was the fact that, essentially, Yamaguchi was back at practise with him.

Finally, the last round ended (the Neighborhood team just wanted to go home). The Karasuno teams wasn’t as lucky, and were forced to stay and clean up. The four tennis team members offered to help, and, whilst most of the team disagreed with this, wound up doing the light sweeping and what not.

Kenma appeared for a second, only to narrow eyes at Kei. Kei really hated that the fairy could do that; poof his puddinghead in and tell Kei what to do without actually saying it. But matter of fact was that the fairy _could_ and the fairy _did_  so the fairy _would_. Kei sighed and slowly made his way over to Yamaguchi, hating the fact that, as of late, he didn’t feel all that stalkerish anymore. The moment Kei did, Yamaguchi smiled.

“Hi!”

A nod responded this. Silence continued and a confused look fell over Bokuto’s face.

When Yamaguchi was just out of ear shot Bokuto leaned over and;

“Dude, I’m not even sure if I should be helping you with this, but you’re really bad at this, Seriously man, weren’t you two friends for, like, six years?” This was the first time Bokuto had been forward enough to acknowledge the more magical side of this, “Here; ask him about tennis or something. This is just painful.”

Kei’s glare was met with a look of dismal to which morphed into a smirk when Kei actually followed this advice.

“How long have you been playing tennis?”

Yamaguchi gave a sort of relieved look and nodded.

“I’d say about 5 years now. It’s sounds really boring, I know, but it’s fun once you get into it. It’s nice to be a part of a team and still get some alone time. It’s also a really great feeling to be out there; in front of a crowd or even just your opponent. You just think to yourself ‘here we go’ and it’s like the world melts and your main focus is to hit the ball. I’m best at my serves and…”

Kei gave a slight smile at this and patiently waited for Yamaguchi to finish his usual ramble.

Once it was, Kei prompted,

“And what was your impression of volleyball?”

“You guys are intense!” Yamaguchi exclaimed, “When I was in primary school, I thought it was safer, without _as many_  scary guys, but I take that back now! I should’ve known-knowing Kageyama was an avid player and realizing that it was a height sport but wow are you guys dedicated! It’s… cool.”

Cool. The word evoked a swirl of nostalgia in Kei.

Yamaguchi loved using that word to describe Kei.

Kei nodded, “Not all of us are tall. There’s Hinata and Nishinoya, but those two are beyond abnormal.”

Yamaguchi gave a small pout, “So mean to them. Not everyone can be as tall as you! Are you the tallest on the team?”

Kei valiantly fought the urge to snip ‘shut up, Yamaguchi’ and instead replied with a huffed nod.

Yamaguchi became nervous and glanced away, suddenly _very_  invested in sweeping. Yamaguchi looked up at Bokuto who not-so-subtly gave a thumbs up, causing Kei to narrow his eyes at the familiar. Something was going on here and Kei was thoroughly concerned. Yamaguchi paid some more attention to his sweeping before looking up at Kei and blurting

“Would you like to go see the fireworks with me on Saturday?”

Kei blinked.

…

_What??_  Where did this come from? Why? How? Who..?

Kei glanced over at Bokuto pumping his fist in the air and Kei tried to make sense of this.

“Did he,” Kei glanced over at Bokuto, “Dare you?”

Yamaguchi’s eyes widened. “Oh! No, no, no, no. He was just the one who prompted me to ask you out, that’s all.” Yamaguchi put a hand on his neck. “Said I should, ah, ‘venture out of my comfort zone’.”

It took a moment for Kei to realize that this comfort zone was ‘girls’ and that this obscure confession was more of an experiment than that. It was enough of a mere experiment for Kei to say no without messing things up. In fact, it could be used as a bit of an ice breaker even.

So why, why in the name of the gods above, did Kei say yes?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well… 100 words more than last time. But I’m moving this story along, finally! We’ll get back to Hinata next chapter, but I wanted to give one more mention before I fully add it in (though I’m pretty sure none of you guys are going to see it coming). 
> 
> Why does Tsukki have to be so hard to wriiiiiiitttttteeeee. Yamaguchi’s fairly easy (though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t talk in paragraphs but okay). Kenma and Kuroo are alright. Hinata’s… predictable enough to write. But I really need to focus on Kei’s non-insult dialogue. It’s hard.
> 
> Thanks for all the support I’ve been getting for this, I really appreciate it! \\_^-^_/
> 
> P.S. If you see words like -this- it's an accident; I have to reformat stuff when I paste it to make a new chapter and that just means I forgot to italicize it and/or take off the markers that remind me which words to do that for.

**Author's Note:**

> Aww, my first Haikyuu fanfiction. Exhausted and as poorly thought out as it usually is! Seriously, I don’t think I can keep my eyes open longer. I’m pretty sure all the Kuroos are spelled Kuri. And every other word is either attached to the next one or jumbled incoherently.
> 
> So I attempted my best interpretation of the characters I have so far. They’ll get better as the story goes on, I promise. Although, I don’t mean to make Tadashi one of those “only mentioned” characters. He’ll talk to Kei and be in flashbacks and stuff, I promise.
> 
> Um, kudo and comment ‘n stuff if you want more, I guess...


End file.
